John Romero makes first new Doom map in 21 years

[Mechadon]

Nice Romero! Very much looking forward to more maps :)

[Noiser]

Thanks Mr. Romero! Your map is genuinely great!

[ReFracture]

Looking forward to what you do next.

[Crunchynut44]

The Doomworld community is about to explode ^^

Great map, definitely had nostalgic value I haven't experienced in years. The damaging sectors were hard to navigate, could have used a couple more rad suits but it was manageable as I managed to find some soul spheres. Detail was abundant, but had the unpolished feel that fits right in with E1, and the gameplay was fitting for a boss map. I think if there was a long silence before the bruiser brothers, it would have added a lot of tension and atmosphere for the finale.

Overall I really enjoyed it, difficult, fast-paced and heaps of fun!

[Demon of the Well]

Yep, the slightest hint that there might be more to come's all I needed to hear to make my evening. More blood for the blood gods!

[unerxai]

It was very fun. I managed to beat it on Ultra Violence with no saves but I only found 2 secrets (a blue armor and a supercharge).

It was a lot easier than I thought it was gonna after reading the comments. I think there are way harder maps in any of the IWADS (well except doom1.wad).

EDIT: Wow, Mr. Romero is here. It was a great map and I hope you make more. :)

[Xaser]

Heh, neato. Cool map, cool post. Most certainly looking forward for more Romero stuffs, whatever it may be.

[Biosphere/Sheol, anyone? ;]

[Use]

Romero's take on the Shores of Hell!!!

[Zed]

It's good and quite challenging due to all those sergeants. Finished on UV with no saves after 5 attempts, no secrets found yet.

Glad to see Romero mapping again!

[Voros]

I wonder...

Mr. Romero, do you plan on making a SnapMap creation?

[RoyBatty]

Dare I say it... the mappening...

[Danfun64]

For those who played this map, how would you describe the difficulty? Episode 4 hard? Doom 2 hard? Final Doom hard? Hell Revealed Hard? Harder then that? NUTS.WAD hard? (jk on last one)

[Zed]

I would say it's something like TNT MAP09, but a little bit easier.

[Chezza]

I played it on medium and was critically injured twice. I don't think any vanilla Doom level puts me in that condition within the same difficulty settings. Granted we all know Doom levels like the back of our hands.

[Xaser]

The difficulty's not too surprising considering how brutal E4M2 and E4M6 are compared to the other IWAD maps (esp. E1). Probably can draw an interesting curve between that and his Quake efforts (which IMO are way more difficult than base Doom; average FPS skill went up quite a bit between games).

Random unscientific off-the-cuff "observations," of course.

[Doomkid]

Romero said:

I haven't made any kind of map for any game since 1996.

Coulda fooled me, that was a really fun map! I'm so damn glad you'll be making more on down the road.

[Worm]

I liked that this map was full of "Romero-isms" (the ceiling gaps and nested secrets stuck out in particular), but didn't feel like a simple retread of E1 style. There's no original Doom level that's as dense as this, with as many new areas opening up as you move around and passages that loop back into earlier sections. Architecture is simple and blocky, but there are details like pillars and support structures that wouldn't exist in the old days. I really liked being able to drop down into the slime tunnels, because it gives the map a multifloored over/under feeling.

Combat-wise, it's no pushover. There are lots of hitscanners, and Romero has certainly not forgotten the basics of setting up an ambush, repopulating areas you're going to backtrack through, and making you worry about stepping in the nukage. There are classic ideas such as a computer maze and fighting in the dark that, again, don't feel like lazy retreads but provide little twists on a recognizable formula. Like a lot of other people, though, I didn't care for the glowing cracks.

Yeah, the ending is really easy, but I appreciate it staying true to the original idea of the Bruiser Brothers even if no experienced player is going to struggle against two barons in that big of a space.

[Doomkid]

I just read the thread a little more thoroughly... I noticed American's twitter post about DM mapping for a quake-like multiplayer game.. I'd KILL to have new a Romero Doom DM map!

[TimeOfDeath]

Fun map, I liked it. The difficulty and those red cracks were totally fine. I thought the final room looked cool, but that fight was a bit anti-climactic (and those final monster teleporters can be super slow). Kind of surreal to see one of the founders mapping again.

btw, there are some FDA and max demos in the demos forum.

[Chris Hansen]

For me, Doom has always been about action, puzzles and navigating through hazardous environments. The latter is an especially important factor to encorporate as the opposition in Doom isn't as strong as Doom II. The player needs to feel pressure from multiple sides. And Romero's map does all of this excellently! Those red cracks are a really cool spin on the normal hazardous materials like lava or slime. Yes, I also thought they were perhaps a bit rough on me in the beginning and would have preferred to ease the player into them gradually. But that's a minor thing. Romero shows us that even after all these years, he still understands his own game right down to the last pixel and shows us things that we somewhere down the line forgot are still perfectly legal to implement, but most importantly; is still challenging and fun in an entertaining way! I loved the way this level played and the ending was sinister and cool looking! Hats off to you, Mr. Romero for not selling out.

[ShadesMaster]

God-damn, what an awesome level!!!! At no point was I bored, the level of detail evoked 'classic' DooM while still having MORE, and I love Romero's use of non-right or 45 degree angles (something missing from many modern shooters, to boot).

The beginning was a bit tough with the abundance of what I call the 'Cracks of DooM' but overall, I found the balance to be reasonable, even on Ultraviolence. The level was long enough but not TOO long, a just-right reinterpretation of the original E1M8 and vastly superior.

Romero states this as a 'warm-up;' for future DooM levels or a future GAME I am not certain, but by the looks of things - promising. :)

[Shaviro]

I don't play a whole lot of Doom these days, but I booted it up for this. I very much enjoyed it. One thing I particularly like is how you start somewhere in the middle of the level and spiral out from there. You're overwhelmed from the start and have to get to a safe place for a breather. Took me a while to get to a place where that was possible. Very nicely done!

[Soundblock]

Fonze said:

Except the being your bitch part,

Intent by proxy-bitch.

[HavoX]

Romero said:

I'm going to be doing a lot more mapping hopefully soon.

Will your version of E1M4 be one of them? Whatever it is, take all the time you need... I know you'll be very busy with your personal business.

[Lingyan203]

Your map is awesome Romero! I hope you're gonna make more Doom maps. I'm looking forward to them!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orD6mOMtDmo

[scalliano]

Had an absolute blast playing this today, but damn, those cracks in the floor did my head in!

Still the master.

[SYS]

Thanks for sharing this awesome map Romero!!!

At the start I found myself panicking from the teleporting baddies, running left, and blowing myself up on the barrels. I felt the detail was the right balance, and congruent to the original episode style. The lava cracks, slime pits, puzzles, dark rooms, and traps really made the map for me.

It had that primal "oh shit" Doom feeling you get when your health is low. Some parts feel very unforgiving at first, but you die and then you know what to expect. Like when dinosaurs ruled the earth and we sunk hours into playing ridiculously difficult side scrollers. You beat it by memorizing the pattern and anticipating.

In short - awesomeness.

[Triple_sSs]

Hot damn...
This is an awesome map! Feels fresh yet familiar at the same time. Sure it's kinda difficult, but this is top-notch level design and almost feels like a return to form in some way.

Romero makes us his bitch once again. Can't wait to see what he cooks up next!

[LkMax]

Good, big and challenging map. I think there's just one huge big problem: way too much slime for too little biosuits available. The player almost need to memorize the map to complete it, otherwise if he doesn't die by the hordes of demons (no problem, fair challenge) or the red cracks (also fair challenge, try to avoid them), he'll likely die quite often by environmental damage looking for the possible paths (and that's actually unfair IMO).

It's a great surprise though, it's safe to say nobody would have predicted that one of the masters of Doom would make a new map 2 decades later. =P

[RUSH]

Such epic news. Been waiting years for this. Thanks John!